Yacht Rock had a Sunday afternoon gig, a benefit for the Songs for Kids Foundation.  In the past, we've participated in a week long event at Smith's Olde Bar called 500 Songs for Kids--lots of local bands (famous or not) jump on stage and play a song they've been assigned.  It's pretty cool, though because of our size and need for accuracy, we end up dragging some gear up those back stairs to play one song.  I think our performance at this gig is a better option, and hopefully raised gobs of money!

You can see what they do in this video:

So...the event was at Monday Night Brewing, which is more or less a warehouse, which is to say that it is not acoustically friendly!  Nonetheless, it was a very easy gig, with a pretty easy load in/out, and it was finished at 5 PM!  Can't beat it.  It even left me time to go play the ol' church gig.

Corporate Stuff

March 29, 2015 Yacht Rock played a corporate fundraiser last night in Roswell, GA.  No big deal.

Kip got a new mixer.  It's a Midas 32 (if you care).

I ate half a bag of Skittles before the gig, and approximately the same amount of trail mix after the gig.

Easy, no-brainer event.  We finished at 10 PM.  I was home at 11, and in bed before midnight.

Duo Tour!

March 28, 2015 David Ellington and I, by fortune of having gigs at the end of this month and the beginning of the next, have embarked on a Dave and Dave Tour.  Last night we played at Sun in my Belly in Decatur;  Monday night, we are playing a private event (with Kevin Smith on bass);  Thursday, we are at JCT Kitchen on the West Side;  Friday, we are back at Sun in my Belly!

Last night's duo was a nice change of pace from the other things I've been doing.  The room got loud, though.  There was more of a crowd, particularly of people gathered right around us as they waited on their reservations.

Check out the sounds...

Two Versions of Hollywood

March 25, 2015 Yacht Rock played a really easy corporate gig in Hollywood, FL at the beginning of the week, and got back to Atlanta just in time to play a movie premier at the Atlanta Film Festival.  Dig:

Sunday:  Up early for our flight to Miami.  Ouch.  The good news is that we were met at the airport by Kip and Hans with all of our gear--they'd driven down the day before with the van and trailer.  After the short trip up I-95, we pulled into the Westin, where a whole crew of stage hands dragged our gear into the ballroom for set up.  After set up, lunch, and soundcheck, we had a little time to hang out in our rooms before the show.  Nice place!

The first night was great--by the end of the first set, a few people were in the mood to get out and dance, and by early in the second set, it seemed like everybody was up.  Very cool!

Even with the encore, we were still finished by 10 PM.

The best news of all was that because we were playing the same gig on Monday night, we could leave all of our gear…

Death by Salsa

March 22, 2015 I picked up a salsa gig in the middle of this past week, playing tonight at the tapas restaurant Eclipse di Luna in Miami Circle.  It was sort of two gigs in one:

1.  The first two sets were a quartet (guitar, bongos/vocals, congas/vocals, and saxes/flutes).  We played latin jazz, bossa novas, and a couple of Buena Vista Social Club tunes.  I fared very well in these circumstances, playing the melody and taking a solo.

2.  In the second two sets, we swapped the guitar for a keyboardist.  We also changed to much more authentic salsa and merengue, and it was here that I had my ass handed to me time and time again, as I vainly attempted to read handwritten, dog-eared charts, at 250 BPM.  In fact, I was surprised that I didn't get fired in between sets (which I would have welcomed because I was so embarrassed).

I'm pretty sure I won't be getting called for this one again!

March 21, 2015 Sunday morning, Yacht Rock flew from Indianapolis to Las Vegas for a weeklong corporate gig (same one we did last year) for Home Depot.  For most of this, we functioned as the backing band for a half dozen employees who took turns fronting the band at the store managers' meeting.  At the end of our stay, we also performed two sets of yacht rock.

Oddly enough, we had a layover in Atlanta.

Atlanta's airport has some nice restaurants, especially in the International Terminal.  Nick led us to Ecco.  I ate this, which was really good, but had me shitting like a goose by the time we landed in Vegas.

The view from my room in Mandalay Bay, Saturday night at dusk.

Sunday morning, we headed off to rehearsals.  The horns for this gig were me, Rob Opitz on trumpet, and Rich Sherrington on trombone.

My plan to use iPads for charts worked incredibly well. Updating charts on my laptop and then emailing them to our tablets took minutes.  Yay technology!

I'm curious as to why I ended up wi…
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